


Kairos

by yumekuimono



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Alternate Universe - Greek Mythology, Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-09-17 03:19:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9301712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yumekuimono/pseuds/yumekuimono
Summary: Tony and Sam aren't normal humans and this party isn't exactly the first time they've met. Nobody else knows that, although they're going to find out.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Loosely based off of a prompt on the [Imagine IronFalcon](https://imagineironfalcon.tumblr.com) blog. I meant this to just be about them being Greek gods, but somehow it turned into a rewrite of most of AoU. Whoops.
> 
> "Kairos" is an Ancient Greek word meaning "the right or opportune moment."

They’d been circling each other all evening. From the moment the man had stepped out of the elevator, greeting Steve with a hug and a slap on the back, Tony had known who he was. He was tall this time around, and wiry, with dark skin and close cropped hair. Also, he was a man. Still, all it had taken was for them to see each other in person for them to know without a doubt. It wouldn’t do for them to be obvious about it though, so like orbiting stars they’d spiraled closer together until now, late in the party, they finally met in an inconspicuous corner. Tony smiled in true delight.

“And what would your name be?”

The man smiled back. Tony very quickly decided he liked it, but then he’d always liked his wife’s smile. “Sam Wilson.”

“Sam,” he repeated, rolling it around his mouth and trying it out. “Good name.”

“Of course, you don’t need an introduction. Everyone knows who you are.”

Tony laughed. “Only took about two and a half thousand years for me to come out on top. Had to happen sooner or later.”

“Uh huh. And everyone knows you to be quite the irresponsible playboy, too. You taking a page outta someone’s book?”

“Hey, you gotta have fun once in a while. Life gets terribly boring if you don’t,” he said lightly, before he sobered a little. “It’s not really all it’s cracked up to be, though. You’d think they’d know how to use my gifts properly by now, but no. It’s why I’ve started keeping all the best toys for myself.”

They were both holding drinks, but Sam reached out to tangle the fingers of their free hands together, a single outward concession to this being anything other than a cordial first meeting. “Does it really count as a tower in the clouds if there are taller buildings around it?” he wondered, lightening the mood again.

“Oh hush, you,” Tony chided playfully. He turned slightly towards the rest of the party, gaze sweeping over the various Avengers dispersed throughout the room. “I’ve got power and status and a team of the world’s finest heroes, and I didn’t even have to field them out of my own pants. Baby brother can eat his heart out.”

Sam followed his gaze, lighting on where Thor was drinking with Steve and a bunch of elderly vets. “Speaking of brothers, I see you’ve got Thor on the team, and I hear you fought Loki. How’ve they been doing?”

“Well, you know, Loki tried to kill me.”

Sam guffawed. “Did he know who you are?”

“Pretty sure. I’d taken my armor off. But kids will be kids, right?” He grinned sideways at Sam. “And tricksters will be tricksters. I’m pretty sure Thor hasn’t figured it out yet.”

“Really? You or whatever Loki’s done?”

“Thor thinks Loki’s dead.” Tony shrugged. “As for me, it’s hardly like we’ve got a lot of power left anymore. It’s what we get for tying ourselves so closely to Earth. And the Asgardians were only ever visitors anyway.” He turned back to Sam. “So what have you been up to this time around?”

“I flew pararescue for a while.”

“Always did like trying to take my stuff,” Tony muttered, smiling into his drink.

“Then I was a counselor in DC until I met Steve.”

“He’s not—?” Tony asked.

“Nah.”

“Didn’t think so, but then sometimes it’s hard for me to tell.”

“That’s ‘cause you’re antisocial.”

“It’s not my fault nobody likes me ‘cept you. Anyway, what’s the chance we meet any of the others with so many people on the planet now?”

Sam shrugged and continued on with the previous topic. “Steve’s got me running after a friend of his. Turns out Cap’s not the only one to cheat death.”

“Rule-breaker,” Tony accused. “Did you know he killed my parents from this time around, Steve’s friend? Actually that’s what triggered my cascade.”

Sam made a sympathetic noise. “You were young, weren’t you?”

“Well, they weren’t the best parents ever. Not the worst either, though it’s kinda hard to be with a precedent like mine. You know you could have called me when everything was going down in DC.”

“It wasn’t the right time.”

Grinning, Tony leaned into Sam’s space. “But now is?”

“I still haven’t actually found Steve’s friend.”

“You know I’ll wait for you,” Tony said softly. “I always do. Stay the night tonight, though?”

Sam smiled back at him, closing the disance between them a little more. “Yeah. ‘Course I will. You know you’re really short this time around.”

“Well, I had to miss out on something to make up for everything else. Are you going to get down here and kiss me or not?”

Of course that was when they were interrupted by Steve calling, “Hey, Sam, Tony. We’re all over here.”

With rueful smiles they drew apart, joining the others where they were clustered together on the couches. Sam hit it off with Rhodey with the instant connection of the armed forces, and then he was shooting Tony secretly amused looks as Tony made up reasons for why he couldn’t lift Thor’s hammer. Not that he wasn’t trying, it was just that he already knew he was unworthy.

When they found out JARVIS had been killed, that was when they decided to stop pretending. Sam folded him into his arms, ignoring the stares of the others. “JARVIS, huh?” he murmured into Tony’s temple. “Always the most ridiculous names.”

“Wait’ll you meet DUM-E,” he mumbled.

When Thor returned Sam glared over Tony’s shoulder and something in his eyes made the thunder god pull up short. Tony always did love him when he put his foot down.

And then Helen Cho asked why Ultron was trying to kill them and Tony found himself laughing helplessly into Sam’s chest, fingers clutching at his back. “Sam, Sam, I fucked up. I fucked up, didn’t I?”

“Oh, honey.” He rubbed his hands over Tony’s back, his sides. “Explain to me what Ultron was supposed to do?”

Tony drew back to look at Sam’s face. “You know I flew a nuke into a wormhole? On the other side, there’s more. They’re coming back. That’s the endgame here, and we can’t beat it. I saw it, this last mission, and I can’t— I don’t have the power anymore to stop it. So Ultron was supposed to, to protect—to _help_. Only he’s got too much of me, and I don’t even know how—we were working off the scepter and we weren’t even close to an interface.” Glancing over Sam’s shoulder, he demanded, “Bruce, were we close to an interface?”

Bruce made a face that meant “kinda-sorta.”

“There were error lights everywhere!” Tony protested.

Before it could go further, Sam interrupted with, “You saw it?”

Tony nodded, mouth pulling down despite his efforts. “The Chitauri coming for Earth, everyone dead but me.”

Sam frowned. “How? You don’t have foresight.”

Tony opened his mouth to respond, and then blinked and stopped. “I don’t know. It was right before I grabbed Loki’s scepter. I _know_ there’s something coming, but the rest… You think someone could’ve managed to find my helm? Never mind, it wouldn’t work anyway, not now and not on me. But someone has that power, and my fear led to this.” He groaned and put his forehead on Sam’s shoulder. “I _hate_ the Moirai. You’d think we’d gone through all this already. Can’t they be more creative?”

“This _is_ creative for them.”

Thor had been frowning between the two of them ever since Sam had stopped him and now he said, “You… You two are not who I thought you were.”

Tony grinned at him, sharp, the weight of years in his eyes. “Damn straight we’re not.”

“Explain this,” Steve said, arms folded and voice hard. “Sam, how do you know Tony?”

Sam turned Tony further to tuck him under one arm against his side. “Yeah, sorry Steve. Guess there’s something you should know about me that I haven’t told you. You all think Thor and co. are the only gods around? We work a bit differently than them, but we’ve been around for a lot longer. I’m Persephone,” he said, his first name uncurling into the air.

“Hades,” Tony stated, and power flared with the words.

“Ah,” Thor rumbled. “My apologies for not recognizing you sooner.”

“Easy to do, kid,” Tony told him. “We’re not exactly as conspicuous as you guys these days. Although Loki knew and still threw me out a window, the brat.”

“Wait, so _if_ you’re really Hades, and you’ve just created a murder-bot, you want us to believe it was an accident?” Clint demanded. “That you didn’t intend to kill everyone?”

“For gods’ sakes, it doesn’t work like that, Barton,” he snapped. “It’s not my job to create the dead, just receive them. Contrary to what popular culture has told you, I’m not evil.”

“Right, so the Merchant of Death doesn’t have anything to do with creating casualties.” That was Natasha.

“In case you’ve forgotten, I don’t do that anymore. Or would you like me to stop upgrading all of your gear?”

“There’s a balance,” Sam interjected, “between life and death. You can’t have one without the other. And if you really think so little of Tony, consider that if life on Earth is destroyed, we die too, and we’re not coming back. Our fates were tied to humanity’s a long time ago, and these bodies are, for all intents and purposes, human. Now, I don’t know how the rest of you were planning on beating whatever’s coming, but I’d rather not die in the attempt, and I’d rather not die beforehand. So we’re gonna figure out how to stop Ultron, and we’re _not_ gonna point any fingers.”

The thing was, Persephone had always been the one to fear, and the team shared glances among themselves before Steve finally acquiesced and started giving orders to start searching.

Tony pulled Sam over to the corner of the workshop where he kept new gear and opened a drawer. “I saw the footage from DC. I wasn’t certain at the time, but I made these.” He handed Sam a new version of his EXO-7 wings.

Sam broke out in a smile as he took them, leaning in over the pack to give him a quick kiss. “Thank you, Tony.  I’m sure they’re beautiful.”

“That was a sucky first kiss,” Tony complained. “I want a do-over.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, should I wait for you to go put on your armor so you can sweep me off my feet all over again?” Sam ribbed him.

Tony literally ribbed him back, jabbing his elbow into Sam’s side. Despite the crisis over Ultron he couldn’t help being happy that he had his wife again.

They worked for several hours, until Sam sighed and put down the tablet he was using. “You don’t have any plants.”

A smile tugged at Tony’s mouth. This was an old argument, familiar and worn down into something soft and comforting. “This isn’t exactly the climate for pomegranates. You know I’d end up killing anything I tried to grow.”

“It wouldn’t hurt you to try. A cactus, at least. Those are hard to kill.”

“Guarantee you I’d manage it. And actually, those would hurt.”

“Well then I’ll just have to fill your penthouse with plants for you.” Sam snuck his arms around Tony from behind. “Come to bed.”

“Sam,” he resisted.

“Tony. You need to sleep. Just for a couple of hours, come on.”

He let himself be persuaded away from his screen, although he got up early to keep searching. When he rejoined the team, Thor didn’t quite slap the tablet to his chest, caught between lingering irritation at Tony’s creation of Ultron and respect for a death god more than twice as old as himself. Sam gave him a bit of a stink eye, but was quickly distracted by the death of Baron von Strucker.

On the way over to South Africa, Tony left his armor standing on the floor of the jet and settled himself back to chest in front of Sam. “If I have to be short this time around, I’m gonna spend as much time as possible as the little spoon,” he announced by way of explanation.

“If you say so, dear,” Sam said, shifting so they were more comfortable on the seat.

“So if you’re not like Thor, how does this whole…Greek gods thing work?” Bruce asked, gesturing to encompass the two of them with the stem of his glasses.

“We reincarnate. We’ve been reborn in various bodies since the end of Classical Greece.”

“You know, it would have been helpful if you’d told us this earlier, Tony,” Steve said, disapproval clear. “I thought we were supposed to be better than SHIELD, not lie to one another.”

“Oh lay off,” Tony told him. “Like you’re not keeping secrets. Or were you going to tell me that your old buddy Barnes is still alive and oh by the way, he’s the Winter Soldier and murdered my parents?”

“What?”

Steve’s eyes flicked up, and Sam said, “Don’t look at me, man. You didn’t even tell me that last part.”

“You’re lucky I already knew,” Tony continued. “Which is one of the only things I can still do. Our power rests on belief, Steve. Who believes in us anymore? At this point I’m pretty hard to kill, I can tell when someone I know personally dies, I’m great at stealth tech, I have riches and can make anything out of metal, I could _probably_ still get a favor out of Mistress Death _if_ we managed to contact her, and I’ve got a two and a half thousand year memory. Most of that can be attributed to being a really lucky genius billionaire. And even if you took my word for the rest of it, what would have been the point in telling?”

Steve’s mouth hardened into a line, but he didn’t say anything in response. Eventually he turned away.

Bruce glanced back and forth between them nervously, before finally deciding it was safe to go back to the previous line of inquiry. “If your power is gradually diminishing, and you’ve been reincarnated into different circumstances each time, and obviously very different bodies, what makes you still…Hades, or still Persephone?”

“Well, we do remember our past lives, though he’s the only one who does right away.” Tony motioned behind himself to indicate Sam. “Privileges of a rebirth deity. The rest of us have to have an event trigger it. But even without that, our basic characteristics have stayed relatively constant.”

“For example,” Sam put in, “Tony’s always a huge nerd, and I’m always good with plants.”

“He’s always been scary when he wants to get his way, and I’m always associated with death somehow.”

“We’ve generally managed to find each other, although the others are less reliable, and we’re still in love.”

Tony tipped his head back to look up at Sam. “Do we want to bother with the paperwork this time?”

“Oh definitely. My mom keeps asking when I’ll find someone and settle down.”

He sighed loudly. “I suppose she wants a party too. Weddings were so much easier when all you had to do to get married was plight your troth to each other. You think she’ll like me this time?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Oh, finally.”

Natasha raised a brow from where she had been observing the whole exchange. “Well, you’ve certainly already got old married couple down.”

Tony stuck his tongue out at her. “Practice makes perfect.”

Thor spoke up now. “The little I have heard of Olympus suggested that it was a place much like Asgard, but those references were all in very old tomes.”

“Well, Asgard’s a chunk of a planet left over from the hatching of a Celestial, right? Originally we were like that too, but Olympus was too small to sustain us, so we tied it and thus ourselves to Earth, and here we are.”

Sam stayed up top of the ship while the rest of them went in to confront Ultron. No sense in betraying the tactical advantage of another person before they needed to. Which was fortunate because while Tony was occupied with his errant creation and the rest of the team left reeling, the Maximoff twins started making their way towards the quinjet, and Bruce. In the end, Quicksilver was too fast for Sam to catch them, but neither did they make it to their goal. None of the team wanted to think about what would have happened if they had.

They regrouped back at the Tower, although it was a solitary sort of endeavor, those that had seen the visions drifting apart to recover from the shock. Thor left entirely to search for answers. Steve ended up in the gym, and eventually Sam went down to talk to him.

“You want to talk about it, or are you just gonna demolish that punching bag?”

Steve paused, putting a steadying hand on the bag. “‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.’ He ripped us apart like cotton candy.”

“You know that’s what he’s trying to do, right? You can’t let him.”

“So what am I supposed to do? Every time someone tries to end a war before it starts, innocent people get hurt. If Wanda had gotten to Bruce it would have happened today. It’s only a matter of time.”

“You think I don’t know that? Steve, I’m a death goddess. There’s a difference between ending a war and preparing for it. Tony admitted he made a mistake. You can either accept that and help try to fix it, or you can let Ultron succeed. It’s up to you.”

“Yeah, and why are you suddenly so chummy with Tony? I thought you were here as _my_ friend.”

“I am your friend. I’ve also been married to Tony for about two thousand years. I’m in this fight so that when everything’s said and done I can go home to him.”

Steve twisted and punched the bag so hard he had to take a step sideways to avoid the backswing. “I don’t have a home anymore.”

In Seoul, Sam narrowly saved Natasha from being captured and ended up taking her place instead. They got the Cradle back to the Tower, though, and while Nat and Clint interviewed the Maximoffs after their change of heart, Tony convinced Bruce not to waste what they’d worked so hard to recover. Steve was a little harder.

“Tony, this is exactly what got us into this mess in the first place.”

“Yeah, but this time we’re gonna do it right. JARVIS is already a fully formed AI, I’m not creating anything new. I’m just putting his mind into this body.”

“That is creating something new. You’re playing God with something you don’t understand.”

“I am a god, Steve. And I’d say as the only one in possession of advanced AI tech at the moment, I do understand. I didn’t create JARVIS out of fear. He’s not so much like me—”

“If this is about Sam—”

“It’s not about Sam, Steve, alright? This is about the fact that there’s still something out there that we can’t beat.”

Natasha strode into the room then. “The twins say Ultron’s put the stone from Loki’s scepter into that body.”

“If you want us to believe the stone was responsible for creating Ultron—”

“But JARVIS has already been beating Ultron. He can counteract the stone—”

Thor put an end to the argument in his typically dramatic fashion. The Vision he created was not JARVIS, and Tony told himself he wasn’t disappointed.

The Maximoff twins also told them that Ultron had taken over Strucker’s base, and they prepared to move out. Cap and the Vision went to confront Ultron and keep him out of the net while the rest of the team started evacuating the city and Tony snuck in to free Sam from Ultron’s orc-pit.

“Hi. Nice place you got. Kinda reminds me of home.”

 Sam grinned when he saw the armor. “Your tower’s much better, believe me.”

He didn’t bother finding a key, just blasted the lock on the bars of the cell before flipping the faceplate up and meeting Sam for a kiss.

“The final showdown’s about to happen in the city. You in?”

Sam pulled his goggles on, taking the comm unit Tony handed him. “Just show me the way.”

He hooked an arm around Sam’s waist and started flying them out of the castle. It wasn’t the quickest, but it was faster than walking.

“You know, Ultron mighta started out like you, but he’s something much different now.”

“What’d he say?”

“That I was the only one he had, right before he started talking about meteors.”

It took Tony a second to place the phrase. “I said that. To Pepper, right after Afghanistan, changing the arc reactor.”

“Well, I’m glad it’s no longer true, but also kinda jealous you didn’t say it to me this time.”

“At least your brand of jealousy is the kind that keeps me faithful rather than taking it out on my kids.”

“Have you got any kids?” Sam asked suspiciously.

“Thank the Fates, no. I haven’t changed to be _that_ much like my brother. Anyway you were the one waiting for the right time.”

They touched down outside right as the earth started rumbling under their feet and part of the city started to rise. Whatever retort Sam had been about to say died on his lips. Tony flipped his faceplate up.

“Suddenly I have the uncomfortable feeling that whatever Ultron said to you about meteors he meant literally.” They glanced at each other, and then both of them moved in for another kiss. “Go, they’re gonna need you on evac a whole lot more now.”

Sam leaped into the air and Tony took off after him, regretting that he didn’t have the time to appreciate his husband’s flying. He ran a loop around the city, getting FRIDAY to give him all the information she could and trying to think of a way to stop it. It looked pretty grim.

“Fuck.”

“Tony,” Steve’s voice came over the comm.

“What, swearing helps me think. Would you rather I switch to Ancient Greek?”

“Oh, of course you remember the swear words,” Sam commented.

Steve ignored them. “What’ve you got?”

“Dunno, maybe a way to blow up the city. Maybe…FRIDAY, what about a heat shield?” She ran the numbers and Tony started talking. “Alright, we’re gonna have to move fast. The impact radius is getting bigger every second, and the city’s not coming down slow, but I think I can get it down. Thor, I’m gonna need you in the church ready to strike the spire on my command.”

There was an affirmative from the thunder god, and Steve took over. “Everyone else, prepare for impact. Get people to safe spots, but our priority is still to take out Ultron. Don’t let him get to the chapel.”

Tony dove down into the crack in the earth, blasting his way when it became a tight fit. He found the opposite end of the spire and cut his way in, positioning himself right at the tip of the anti-grav generator and getting to work.

Sam’s voice came back over the comm. “Tony, tell me you’re walking away from this.”

He hesitated for too long. “Maybe. But like I said, reminds me of home down here. The worst happens, I’ll see you on the flip side. Thor, you in position?”

The longer they waited, the more room to maneuver he had, but also the more people were likely to die. He gave the command. The spire missed him by millimeters, and then everything went black.

When he came to, he was buried under the city. “FRIDAY?” he groaned.

The HUD flickered and fuzzed, but the AI said, “Still here, boss.”

“Oh, good. Run a diagnostic on the suit.”

His comms were out and most of the internal systems were damaged, but nothing was critical. The space carved out around the generator had afforded him some protection as the city dropped back down. He could work with that.

“Alright, scan the surrounding area, I want a visual and I wanna know what’s safe to move.”

When the generated image appeared on the HUD, he tentatively pushed himself up.

“Boss, I don’t think that’s wise, considering your condition.”

“Save it for later, FRI.” If Ultron had managed to get down here to build all of this, there had to be a way back out. He managed to make it to the dungeon he’d rescued Sam from and tell FRIDAY to activate his emergency beacon before he blacked out again.

When he opened his eyes this time, it was just like the first time he’d nearly died for the team, everyone gathered around him dirty and exhausted, and his faceplate pulled off. Except that now it was Sam kneeling next to him and Tony said, “Did I miss all the fun?”

And Sam said, “Just like always,” and leaned down to kiss him.

Three weeks later, both the Tower and everyone’s injuries most of the way healed, Sam took his leave to continue his search for Bucky Barnes. Tony caught his hand in front of the penthouse elevator.

“Thought you were supposed to stay with me during the winter, not go chasing after it.”

“You’re forgetting that it was only after winter was brought back that I got to stay with you.”

He tried to think of an appropriate response and drew up blank. “You know what, this metaphor’s not working out.” Instead he leaned in to capture Sam’s mouth. “Just make sure you get back here safe. We’re still having a wedding, right?”

“Wouldn’t forget about it. And I’m still filling this place with plants.”

Tony kissed him once and then twice more. “Looking forward to it.”

Sam threw him a two-fingered salute as the elevator doors closed, leaving Tony standing there with a stupid smile. Whatever else happened in this life, they’d have each other.

**Author's Note:**

> I am also on [Tumblr](http://yumekuimono.tumblr.com)


End file.
